five minutes with Lisa lintott
Lisa Lintott completed the Life Writing Programme in 2016-2018 and has since written an award-winning play and screenplay. She is currently editing her first novel.
When do you first remember wanting to be a writer? At primary school. We had to learn a poem to recite every week and then write a poem. I always really enjoyed it. My friend was a great writer and her work was always read out and I was envious of her talent, thinking I’d like to be that good.
Why did you decide to join the Life Writing Programme? In 2016 I moved to Brighton from London and needed to stop working for a while. I had been through a traumatic period and saw the Life Writing Programme as a way of making sense of it all. It also allowed me to commit myself to this long held secret and subdued ambition of becoming a writer to actually being a writer.
Who were your tutors? Hannah Vincent and Laura Wilkinson
What was the most impactful element of the course for you? The commitment to the work: Turning up twice a week, doing the tasks set and getting through the reading list. The tuition was great, the tutors cared passionately about our projects and were so generous in their feedback and encouragement. The safety of the space facilitated a supportive peer community that focused on the work while understanding the daunting and vulnerable nature of being there. This course gave me the confidence to find my voice and develop my ideas and I will always be grateful for the care given.
You then went on to do an MA in Writing Your First Novel at St Mary’s, Twickenham. Can you tell us about how this course differed from the Creative Writing Programme? In many ways it was similar, in structure (two evenings a week, a reading list, and a schedule of topics and class work to be read in class) BUT it was a course for a specific piece of work in progress (a novel). This was very helpful as it meant that I left the course with a completed first draft. In fact I decided to do this course for that specific reason as the other creative writing MAs (including Oxford) actually offered less than the Creative Writing Programme and I felt that I would be repeating my learning and be no further forward in my writing aspirations.
What happened after you’d finished this course? Most importantly I considered myself a writer and believed I could write. I took a seed idea developed in the Life Writing Programme and went on to develop that into a novel. I am still at first draft, but now joining the Advanced Writing Programme to progress Sunshine is the best of disinfectant as my debut novel. I also wrote a screenplay and a play.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your debut play Going for Gold? As part of the Life Writing programme we had additional masterclasses. One of these was a workshop on food. We were asked to create a piece inspired by a food memory. I wrote a short story about a boxer who came into my Mum’s corner shop when I was a child. I loved the story and wondered what happened to the boxer. I went down the research rabbit hole and uncovered an amazing and tragic story of resilience, belonging and ultimately love. It was 2018. I put together a short film script as a project for my out-of-work actor son. We had a zero budget but we begged favours and shot the film in a day. After a very long and free post process we completed the film in 2020. We entered it into a few film festivals and it won a couple of awards and a special mention. I then decided to turn it into a play, so my still jobbing actor son could get a role. I completed a four week online Intro to Playwriting course at RCSSD. At a networking event at Brighton Dome, I met a young director Betsy Robertson, who asked if she could read the script after I read the opening pages, she then asked if she could direct it. So in 2023, self financed and produced, we run for two days in Brighton Fringe and four days at Chelsea Theatre. The play won the Fuse International Best Theatre Award at Brighton Fringe and three Black British Theatre Awards (Best Play, Best Production and Best Lead Actor) held at the National Theatre.
And can you tell us more about your route to publication / production for the play? When we were producing the first run, we contacted Park Theatre who had recently produced a boxing play called On the Ropes to ask if we could loan the boxing ring. Unfortunately they had thrown it out a few days before, but it started a relationship. A few directors had seen the play and one Gbolahan Obessian offered notes, along with Neil Grutchfeld and Esther Baker from Synergy Theatre. We were also successful in an Arts Council R&D bid, to develop the play and some community workshops in boxing clubs and Windrush groups, so I completed a further draft of the play and we were offered a four week slot at Park Theatre. We produced the play ourselves, which was extremely stressful, especially finding the finance, as we were unsuccessful with our second Arts Council bid, so we had to secure private finance and I still had my day job. I wouldn’t recommend it. But the train steamed ahead and it had a successful four week run and a week in Barbados. Salamander Street is a small specialised publisher that just publish plays. They have a relationship with Park Theatre and publish selected plays performed there. They contacted me to say they would like to publish Going for Gold and how much they liked it and sent a contract. They were very encouraging and supportive. I recently received my first royalty cheque for £84.35 which I’ve framed.
Going for Gold has been longlisted and won numerous awards – can you tell us more about these? At first draft I entered the play into the RSC 37 Play Awards ( a national programme looking to commission 37 plays that represented Britain and its history) and the New Diorama Untapped Award (Support for Edinburgh) and the play was long listed for both. This encouraged me to continue the process. Frankie, the boxer, was still alive at this point, and showed tremendous faith in my ability to get his story told. He died two weeks before we opened. We entered the play into the Brighton Fringe late, and had missed most deadlines for the Awards programme but the Fuse International Award for Young Creatives was still open. Betsy was 26 at the time and so I entered us and it won! The Black British Theatre Award is by public vote and so we were nominated by our audience. It was an amazing evening as we picked up three awards and no one had heard of us or the play. And it has been commissioned by Radio 4 where it will be aired later this year.
We were invited to appear on Womans’ Hour and while at the BBC, we were mistaken as actors attending for a Caribbean play being recorded by the drama producer. As a result she took us to meet the director and listen in. They came to see the play and read the script. They suggested that we put ourselves forward in the spring commissioning round as it tied in with the Commonwealth Games being held in 2026. Unfortunately due to work commitments and not finding an experienced radio producer, I missed my deadline. I am also adapting the play into a screenplay and holding down a full-time job, so figured it wasn’t the right time, this time.
You are currently editng your first novel Sunshine is the Best of Disinfectants. Can you tell us more about this? Sunshine is the Best of Disinfectants is my passion project and why I committed to writing. It’s been on the back burner for five years now and it’s time to put the gas up. I’m really nervous about going back to it and doing the project justice, which is why I’m joining the Advanced Writing Workshops so I feel supported and have some structure, things I have to turn up for and deadlines. Editing is a different skill, it’s like having a teenager that needs putting on the straight and narrow, but there’s also a joy to that process, in knowing you’re making the work the best possible version of itself before you leave it to face the world as a grown up. You have to be brutal and objective, almost clinical, constantly referring back to the narrative arc and the intention but you also have to love it so other people can love it too.
How different is your writing process when writing a novel as opposed to writing a play? The play felt like a bit of a cheat really. It wasn’t my story and I had 47 hours of interviews to refer back to. I felt more like a translator and I watched tons of boxing clips, movies and read heaps on boxing in the 1970s as well as watching Windrush related stuff. My main job was to collide the two worlds and keep focused on what the three central characters wanted and needed from the story and transpose their words to the stage, I could see and hear it and you’re writing for a team, that will present it. I’m good with dialogue and so it felt natural. The novel requires much more thought, the world has to be created on the page with considered details, and the page is all you have. You have to own it hook line and sinker, so it’s a lot of pondering and grazing like a cow just to find your way to the fridge. But my routine for both is the same. I get up at five and then write or do writer related activities until about nine, when I go to work, and give it one full day at weekends. Luckily I am older (64) so have no kids at home, lovers in my bed, or multiple social activities to accommodate, so am free to gossip on paper. Writing has become my best friend.
What are your top tips for someone starting out in their writing career? Be brave and jump in, however and wherever you want. There is no good or bad or right or wrong way. There’s just your truth and you can’t locate it without doing it. That’s what I hold onto. Writing teaches me about myself and speaking my truth reduces my feelings of vulnerability. We’re only human after all. Just enjoy it, because it will take up a lot of your time, energy and heart, so feel the ride.
The Advanced Writing Workshops start in October 2025 and are run online on Monday evenings with Jacq Molloy or on Wednesday evenings with Laura Wilkinson at Kemptown Bookshop, Brighton. Find out more and apply here.